ActressKim Basinger and her brother Mick purchaseBraselton, Georgia, for $20 million. Basinger would lose the town to her partner in the deal, the pension fund ofChicago-based Ameritech Corp., in1993 after being forced to file for bankruptcy when a California judge ordered her to pay $7.4 million for refusing to honor a verbal contract to star in the filmBoxing Helena.
June 13 – TheJames Bond filmLicence to Kill is released. It would be followed by years of legal wrangling over the future of the popular series. The nextBond film,GoldenEye, will be released in 1995.
June 23
Batman is released by Warner Bros., earning more than $410 million worldwide. It established the public and critical attention of directorTim Burton.
July 7 –Lethal Weapon 2 is released by Warner Bros., becoming both the highest-grossing film in the franchise and the highest grossing R-rated film of the year at the domestic box-office.
July 11 – Screen, stage, and Shakespearian legendLaurence Olivier died peacefully at his British home, after appearing in his last filmed role as an old soldier inWar Requiem.
September 28 –Sony announce its intention to buyColumbia Pictures andTri-Star Pictures. The deal is completed in November for a total cost of nearly $5 billion. They appointPeter Guber andJon Peters as co-chairman, in a further deal that cost up to $1 billion, after settling a lawsuit withWarner Bros.
November 17 –The Little Mermaid becomes a critical and commercial success, bringing new life toWalt Disney Feature Animation. This film also reinvigorated public and critical interest inThe Walt Disney Company, which would become one of the most prestigious corporations of the 1990s.
International grosses (outside US & Canada):"1989 Worldwide Grosses".Box Office Mojo. June 21, 2024. Archived fromthe original on March 12, 2014.Overseas: $99.8 million
